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This invention relates generally to the construction of walkways and golf cart pathways, and more particularly to a tile or brick and backing assembly for more easily and economically constructing a more naturally aesthetic walkway, golf cart pathway or driveway.
Asphalt has become the preferred mode or constructing a walkway or a golf cart pathway or light duty driveway along and adjacent to fairways between successive tees. Alternately, such pathways may also be constructed of poured concrete or individual bricks or tiles which are laid atop the ground one at a time in a desired array. All of these prior art forms of constructing such walkways and pathways are expensive and skilled labor intensive with respect to materials and equipment required for such construction. Moreover, a continuous strip of black asphalt is aesthetically incompatible in a lush forest-like setting of a golf course fairway.
A number of prior art patents teach various forms of constructing driveways, walkways and pathways as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,664 to McNamee
U.S. Pat. No. 4,921,741 to Mullen
U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,430 to Vidal
U.S. Pat. No. 5,418,036 to Tokikawa et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,391 to Mckee
U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,575 to Yeh
U.S. Pat. No. 4,888,928 to Rea et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,740,911 to O""Leary
U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,731 to DeGooyer
U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,854 to Gutjahr
U.S. Pat. No. 5,238,721 to Nakazawa
However, these complex prior art patents emphasize the expense of these concepts of creating a pathway or walkway made of tile or brick or constructed in situ.
The present invention provides a prefabricated system for the easy deployment of a tile or brick pathway or walkway atop the ground or other substrate which is both economical to manufacture and economically deployable in such a fashion that the pathway may also be variably expanded with respect to adjacent tile or brick and arcuately or linearly contoured to follow an edge of a fairway or walkway path in almost any desired configuration. Moreover, by the means of expansion of the array of tile or brick during deployment, the variable spaces or gaps between each of the adjacent tile or brick may be either filled with decorative material such as gravel, sand, shell or sod or simply seeded with grass and allowed to grow up and fill in these expansion gaps for a more natural appearance of the completed pathway.
This invention is directed to a tile and backing assembly for creating a walkway, pathway and a driveway atop ground or other substrates. Each assembly includes a backing mat or member preferably formed from a single sheet having tile support members positioned side-by-side one to another. The tile support members are preferably formed by spaced apart transverse slits or cuts through the backing mat, each slit or cut having complete and incomplete segments and extending in zigzag fashion across the width of the backing mat. Each of the incomplete segments is defined by overlapping spaced unconnected slit segments to define a slender elongated expansion link connecting adjacent tile support members together. Each tile is attached to one tile attachment area in a desired design array with adjacent tiles abutting one another. Each assembly is deployed atop a substrate or ground and, by then pulling end margins thereof apart to expand the backing mat in length up to a limit of length and elasticity of the expansion links, the tiles form a desired spaced apart expanded array atop the substrate.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a tile or brick and backing mat assembly which is prefabricated before transport to the deployment site, there expanded and positioned or connected in end-to-end fashion to other assemblies to form a pathway or walkway along a subsurface such as ground.
It is another object of this invention to provide a unique pathway or walkway construction which, when completed, natural materials or growth will occur between the expanded tile or brick to provide a more attractive alternative to a continuous asphalt pathway.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a tile or brick and backing assembly for constructing a walkway or a golf cart pathway which is easily contourable with prefabricated sections deployed in end-to-end fashion to form the pathway or walkway.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a system for constructing walkways, pathways and driveways which affords easier and more economical installation by being geared toward the utilization of unskilled laborers and conventional tools and implements for its deployment.
Still another object of this invention is to provide walkways and pathways along a golf course fairway which provide golf ball bounce and roll characteristics similar to those of the fairway itself.
In accordance with these and other objects which will become apparent hereinafter, the instant invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.